"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation. Under God. Indivisible. With liberty and justice for all." That’s the American ideal, though we have never fully lived up to it.

Most people would agree with the following statements, -"People should deserve what they get", and" People should get what they deserve." In the news recently has been a story of two Hollywood celebrity moms who cheated to get their daughters accepted and enrolled at prestigious colleges. They went so far as hiring very smart people to take the SAT tests for their children. They also hired a shady character to secretly bribe school officials to get these students accepted. In the process, because these fraudulent students were accepted worthy students were denied. I think any reasonable person with any sense of justice would find this to be very wrong, because "People should deserve what they get." These fraudulent actions go against the very fabric of America where there is supposed to be liberty and equal justice for all.

Since this is a very serious crime both of these moms are being prosecuted. It’s a case where the rich, famous and powerful receive preferential treatment at the expense of common folks. It seems that one mom has been apologetic and repentant while the other appears to be in denial. I think it’s safe to say that most who have been keeping up with this case want these moms to be appropriately punished, because -"People should get what they deserve."

Harvard University is one of the most coveted schools in the world that makes the claim that only the very best and brightest are accepted. Yet it seems that the number of children of Politicians accepted are disproportionately high. Curiously, former Vice President Al Gore has had four children in a row accepted to Harvard. Statistically, the odds of that happening is equivalent to a person being struck by lightning every single day for an entire year! It doesn’t begin and end with Harvard, but is also true of Yale and other esteemed Universities.

I heard a story of a man who wanted to get his son in the very prestigious Swarthmore College. It just so happened that an old high school friend was a distinguished Professor there. So he called him one day and told him all the good things about his son, -a near straight A student, never been in trouble and had great character. The Professor told his old friend, -"Your son sounds exactly like the type of student we are looking for." The father then asked, "Do you think he will be accepted at Swarthmore?" And the Professor replied, "Oh, I very much doubt it old friend." The father then asked, "But why not if he is exactly what the school is looking for?" The Professor then said, "Yes he is. But there are thousands of students who are equally as qualified as your son who will apply, and we can only accept a limited number of them."

This is a case that seems very much unfair. But it is simply a reality that a university can only accept as many students as it has the means to accommodate. Will some who are more qualified than others get left out while lesser qualified student get in? The answer is yes. The reasons will vary from simple mistakes, to affirmative action, and even to personal favoritism. Sometimes when a wealthy family wants one of their children to be accepted at a desired college they make large donations to the school for years in advance. This causes some administrators to feel a sense of appreciation and obligation to accept a lesser qualified student.

One might say that justice is equity -when all is fair and all is equal. The Bible describes the Creator as a God of justice. And He certainly is just. Even when the decision was made to redeem man from his sins against God and man He did not simply declare "I will extend mercy and forgive" -WHY? -because people should deserve what they get, and people should get what they deserve -only then can true justice be served. So the Creator of man took it upon Himself to become a man in order to lay down His sinless life on our behalf. Justice demanded that someone had to pay the wages of sin and He paid our sin debt that we may live. And He didn’t stop there. He didn’t want us to live for eternity as "pardoned criminals" forever mindful that we didn’t deserve eternal life with it’s fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. So He made it possible for our old self to die in Christ and for us to be born again of the Spirit that we would become a new creation with no history of sins committed, -this is called justification. To be justified is to have been thoroughly examined and found without guilt.

In the natural we understand that we have failed our Creator. We have all fallen short of His glory. And though we receive by faith that He has justified us by the sacrificial blood of the Son of God, we still remember our past, and we are still aware that we don’t even seek to please Him every minute of every day even now as born again saints. So it doesn’t seem like justice when a perfect, sinless person has to pay for our sin debt- and then we are completely set free and are justified. Jesus didn’t deserve to suffer and die for us. And it seems that we didn’t get what we deserved for living a life of sin, which is death in the lake of fire. This compels us appreciative souls to say,- "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering."

As we meditate upon the love, mercy and grace that our Creator has lavished upon us, it should surely help to protect us from the thoughts that God is not fair-that He has not treated us fairly - or that the world is not fair, not just, and it’s God’s fault. But it is not as if God sat idly by and did not share in the sufferings Himself. He emptied Himself of divinity (Phil 2), came in the likeness and weakness of man, was tempted as we are, overcame and remained sinless, then laid down that sinless life to save us. The Creator knew well that if He made man with a free will that he could choose to do wrong. But God made man to become His sons and to love Him as He loves us. This would only be possible if God gave man the freedom to choose to love Him or not. There are those who make the claim that God is unjust in punishing those who choose their own way. That it is terribly unfair to give someone freedom of choice but if they don’t choose God’s way then they will be destroyed in the Lake of Fire. But from God’s perspective every evil in the world is caused by failure to follow His way. All wars, murders, rapes, child molestations, abortions, -all the evil things which most of us hate. One day our Creator will bring destruction upon the entire universe and create a new heavens and a new earth free from a sinful and wicked past for His children. So ask yourself the question, -"What kind of new world do you want?" If you want a just world that is free from evil, then you cannot allow evil people to live there.

Obviously, if you create anything for use you expect to have power over the thing you created. If you created a coffee cup you would expect the cup to do it’s job without leaking, etc. If you build a new house you expect the house to be solid, stable and with a roof that does not leak when it rains. The eternal Creator had made all things for specific purposes too, and when something or someone rebels against it’s own purpose the usefulness is not there. You and I simply discard things that no longer work, but our loving Creator went so far as to personally suffer and die to save us from being discarded. Then He gave us a new life in Jesus that we might live in His divine purpose which He planned and created for each individual. Perhaps, we are still awaiting justice for some wrong we’ve suffered. And perhaps the world is still awaiting justice for wrongs suffered. But let’s understand this, that our just Creator has suffered willingly without deserving that suffering. If anyone had been wronged and is still waiting for true justice it’s God.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to become as He is. This means that we will also have to suffer unjustly at times, and in so doing we share in the suffering of Jesus, -" For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God." (1 Peter 2:19-20) This is as Christ-like as we are capable of being.

The Socialist Dream

Those who expect justice in this fallen world will be disappointed. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing at this point in time. Consider that if God were to begin to bring about perfect justice that He may well begin by judging you. Since we are all sinners we cannot demand justice without the expectation that it will eventually come our turn to face it. The movie "Enemy at the Gates" tells the story of the renown Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev during WW2 as his country was chasing the Communist-Socialist dream of utopia. Stalingrad was occupied by the Germans and the Russian soldiers were out-manned and out-gunned. The only tactic left at their disposal was the use of snipers.

Vasily Zaytsev became the most famous sniper and the Russian propaganda machine used his exploits to boost morale. One of the young men who was in charge of producing a periodical propaganda bulletin was his best friend Danilov. Danilov was a true believer in the Socialist ideals of equity and equality for all. He believed that it would usher in a utopian world. "Utopia" is an imagined place or state of thing in which everything is perfect. But he was soon devastated to learn that the girl he was in love with was in love with Vasily. At this time the Germans had deployed their best sniper to Stalingrad to hunt down and kill Vasily, so Vasily found himself in the cat and mouse game of hide and seek.

While in a hiding spot Vasily scanned the city looking for enemy targets while carefully guarding himself from the German sniper. On this particular night his best friend was with him and was despondent. He had suddenly recognized that the Socialist dream of creating a true utopia was not achievable. As he beared his heart to Vasily he said that he now realizes that the world could never truly be fair and equal, because some people will always have what others want. Some will always be more attractive, more intelligent, more talented, etc. This normally optimistic young man was now in the depth of despair. Both men knew and understood that there was an enemy sniper scanning every likely sniper spot. They both knew that they must stay away from any opening to prevent movement from being seen. But suddenly the young man removed his hat and placed his face in the opening where he could be seen and was immediately shot and killed. Because his idealistic dream was shattered he had committed suicide

It is in the nature of man to long for justice, though each individual is often blind to the gravity of his own guilt. Mankind as a whole has always felt a need for fairness. In times past this was often referred to as "The Law of Nature." C.S. Lewis observed, "Every one has heard people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say. They say things like this: "How'd you like it if someone did the same to you?"—"That's my seat, I was there first"—"Leave him alone, he isn't doing you any harm"— "Why should you shove in first?"—"Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine"—"Come on, you promised." People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups.

Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man's behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: "To hell with your standard." Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given something, or that something has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise." (Mere Christianity)

In this fallen world filled with people with fallen natures, we cannot expect true justice-but God promises to one day bring perfect justice. There will be no one who has suffered loss who will not be compensated -and that is a promise from Jesus. (Mark 10:29-30) Somehow God will right every wrong as only He is able to do.

This faithful man was sold into slavery by his own brothers when he was a youth. He eventually found himself in Egypt and by God’s grace found favor there. He was a loyal servant to his master Potiphar who was Captain of the Palace Guard. One day Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce Joseph and when he refused and ran from the room she falsely accused him of sexual assault. It was a miracle that Potiphar did not have Joseph executed but instead put him in prison. Joseph suffered this fate for ten years. He knew that he had been falsely accused. He also knew that his God whom he prayed to every day could have prevented this from happening, but didn’t. Yet Joseph kept his faith and continued to place his trust in the Lord. If you know the story, then you know that after ten years God delivered Joseph from prison and raised him up to a position second only to Pharaoh in power. God later used Joseph to save much of the world from starvation, including his father Jacob, and also the very brother who sold him into slavery.

Perhaps no man other than Jesus has suffered as Job. By God’s own admission Job was the most righteous man living. Satan desperately wanted to attack Job but could not because God had placed a hedge of protection around him. But one fateful day God granted permission for Satan to attack Job with certain limitations. Job’s ten children were all killed at once, his servants were killed, his herds and flocks were stolen, and yet Job did not blame God and sin. Satan then was permitted to afflict Job with painful boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. He was in agony. His wife turned against him and said, "Curse God and die!" Soon three of Job’s closest and trusted friends arrived. The sight of Job’s suffering was so extreme that all they could initially do was sit in silence. But there was an elephant in the room -something believed but not yet spoken of -and that was that Job must have some secret sin which God is punishing him for. Finally his three friends brought up that thought. Why did they think this way? Well, because God is just, and in their minds all the loss Job has and is currently suffering would be terribly unjust if he were innocent. Job found himself alone and receiving false accusations. Even God’s presence seemed very far away. But in all of this Job kept his steadfast trust in God, saying, -"Though He slay me, yet I will put my trust in Him."

At the end of Job’s trial God healed him, gave him more children, and blessed him with even more flocks and herds. But giving a father more children after he has suffered the loss of his previous children cannot replace those children lost. Yes, afterwards Job was blessed will many children but God did not return those who had already died. This would not be complete justice. Yet Job’s children were not lost forever. Like Job they are resting in the grave waiting to be resurrected to life. In Ezekiel 16 calls all children "My children - and in Ezekiel 18 He says "all souls are Mine. The Bible says that it is appointed for man to die once, then face the Judgment of God. Every person will someday die and will await the resurrection to life. As humans we tend to think of death as something final. But God thinks of death as sleep, -"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:2)

I don’t know how God can bring about perfect justice in the end, but I have faith that He is able and is willing. If He has the power to speak into existence that which did not previously exist -And if He has the power to remove our transgressions from us as far and East is from the West -And if He has the ability to remember our lawless deeds no more-to actually forget every sin that we have ever committed and erase it from His memory. . .and receiving by faith that in the world to come old things will no longer be remembered. . .Perhaps He has the power to remove every injustice that has ever been committed and make it as if it never happened. Jesus said, -"With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)